Bitcoin Core v32.0 is targeted for release in October:
- Up to 3x faster initial sync. Block validation now fetches transaction inputs from disk in parallel instead of one at a time
- The libevent external dependency is fully removed, continuing Core's push to cut third-party dependencies
- Max peer connections raised from 125 to 200 to have more open slots for new nodes to sync from, faster block propagation, and a harder network to eclipse or partition
- Mempool-based fee estimation to cut fee overestimation (in progress)
- Transaction relay rate limiting is now global instead of per-peer, keeping a node's CPU and memory usage steady when transaction volume spikes
- Ships with features from libsecp256k1 0.8.0 with verification up to 11% faster, plus the new Silent Payments module (BIP 352)
- PSBTv2 (BIP 370) support, now the default for PSBT-creating RPCs for better coordination of unsigned transactions for multisig and hardware wallet setups
- New exportwatchonlywallet command to export a wallet as a watch-only file, no private keys, and restore it on your online node
- Core now enables Tor's proof-of-work DDoS defense on the onion service it creates for your node, where the Tor daemon supports it
Additional tests, bugfixes, and features included as well.
Feature freeze is ~August 20, rc1 ~September 10, final release targeted for ~October 10. (Test the release candidates when they ship!)
That's very cool 😎 ! Especially IBD and Silent Payments progress.
https://twiiit.com/bitschmidty/status/2087179372247576800
silent payments in Core proper is the real headline here. wallets have treated BIP 352 like a plugin for two years, once it ships in the default client the excuses are gone. the parallel sync speedup matters for the network more than it looks, faster sync means less trust in explorers and checkpoints, that's the quiet win